Vancouver Looking to breath new life into the mothballed Mount Polley copper-gold mine in south-central British Columbia, owner Imperial Metals (III-T) has a drill rig turning on a newly discovered zone some 1.5 km northeast of the Bell pit.
Dubbed the Northeast zone, the high-grade find has been outlined on surface over a 140-by-70-metre area. A newly completed trench program yielded up to 1.03% copper and 0.42 gram gold per tonne over 54 metres.
Located near Williams Lake, the past producing Mount Polley mine was put on care and maintenance back in Sept. 2001 due to historically low copper prices. Construction of the mine was completed in June 1997 after a subsidiary of Japan-based Sumitomo acquired a 45% interest in the project by agreeing to loan $54 million in debt financing. Capital cost for construction came in at $123.5 million.
Then in July 1999, Imperial sold another 2.5% interest to Sumitomo for US$875,000 to meet ongoing financial obligations. By 2000, Imperial had reacquired the 47.5% interest for $4.5 million in cash.
In total some 55 million tonnes of material were mined from the Cariboo and Bell Pits, yielding 27.7 million tonnes of ore grading 0.56 grams gold per tonne and 0.33% copper. At the time of mine suspension, 2.7 million tonnes grading 0.22% copper and 0.31 grams gold, and 200,000 tonnes of material grading 0.29% copper and 0.42 grams gold had been stockpiled for future processing. In 2000, the operation produced 34.2 million lbs of copper and 83,000 oz of gold. The remaining probable ore reserves from the Springer and Bell pits at Sept. 30,2001 tallied 31.9 million tonnes grading 0.36% copper and 0.34 gram gold.
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